Do you remember learning to write? You probably picked up the pencil without thinking about it—and that established your dominant hand. It was just how you were. If you were left-handed, you quickly realized that you had a challenge ahead of you—most of the world is right-handed and in some cultures there is pressure for children to be right-handed—the message here is that being right-handed is “normal,” but being left-handed is not.
Now, imagine you can be fired from your job for being left-handed, denied housing, physically assaulted, and there are people who think you are going to hell for being left-handed because some religions espouse the left hand is the devil’s hand. On top of that, the fact that you are left-handed is the only thing people remember about you. You may even be compelled to hide your left-handedness. It’s a lonely, marginalizing existence. Now substitute the term LGBTQ+ for left-handed, and you have the plight of many gay persons—we use the term gay inclusively here. This is in part the reason behind the creation of the National Gay Pilots Association.
